mapping before game... (DM)
- Thread starter dylman06
- Start date
weem
First Post
You could try a random dungeon generator 
ExploderWizard
Hero
Yes. I know where you are coming from. Welcome to the boards. 
Try drawing your map freehand on plain paper. Make the lines really dark then trace it onto your graph/hex paper. Sometime we see the scale/grid as natural boundaries.
Try drawing your map freehand on plain paper. Make the lines really dark then trace it onto your graph/hex paper. Sometime we see the scale/grid as natural boundaries.
Don't do dungeons.
I know that sounds glibe or a like a smart-ass answer, but it's a good place to start. Pick some new locations: bandit camps, islands, ships, river crossings, temples and other urban sites. Focus on adventures outside of dungeons.
Awhile back I drew a line on the battle map to represent a forest trail where the party had been ambushed. I looked at it and wondered how long and how many maps like that I'd drawn. After that, I stopped featuring trail ambushes.
If dungeons are stale, leave the dungeons.
I know that sounds glibe or a like a smart-ass answer, but it's a good place to start. Pick some new locations: bandit camps, islands, ships, river crossings, temples and other urban sites. Focus on adventures outside of dungeons.
Awhile back I drew a line on the battle map to represent a forest trail where the party had been ambushed. I looked at it and wondered how long and how many maps like that I'd drawn. After that, I stopped featuring trail ambushes.
If dungeons are stale, leave the dungeons.
Depending on your financial resources check out some of the mapping programs.
ProFantasy has a very nice library of maps that can be used with their free viewer. On the other hand the program while great is expensive and takes time to learn.
There are free or low cost ones but since I own ProFantasy Campaign Cartographer I have not checked any of them out.
Here are the links: http://www.profantasy.com/library/dpv.asp and http://www.profantasy.com/library/default.asp
ProFantasy has a very nice library of maps that can be used with their free viewer. On the other hand the program while great is expensive and takes time to learn.
There are free or low cost ones but since I own ProFantasy Campaign Cartographer I have not checked any of them out.
Here are the links: http://www.profantasy.com/library/dpv.asp and http://www.profantasy.com/library/default.asp
Last edited:
(i read the title too quickly and saw it as "Napping before game...", which i immediately thought is better than napping during the game, but anyway...)
i like ExplodingWizard and Armadillo's suggestions a lot; i have taken recently to doodling lines curves and shapes in a sketch book and turning those abstract designs into maps. as far as scale is concerned, i scan them into photoshop clean them up, and print them onto 8 1/2" x 11" grid paper.
photoshop is also nice to use because you can edit fairly easily, use colors quickly, and print out a DM version and a non-keyed version (using hidden layers) for the players.
finally, another DM i used to game with would use city maps - the ones showing city blocks, streets, buildings, etc - trace over them, turning the buildings on the maps into rooms, the streets into corridors, parks into chasms or fungus gardens, etc.. kinda cool!
i like ExplodingWizard and Armadillo's suggestions a lot; i have taken recently to doodling lines curves and shapes in a sketch book and turning those abstract designs into maps. as far as scale is concerned, i scan them into photoshop clean them up, and print them onto 8 1/2" x 11" grid paper.
photoshop is also nice to use because you can edit fairly easily, use colors quickly, and print out a DM version and a non-keyed version (using hidden layers) for the players.
finally, another DM i used to game with would use city maps - the ones showing city blocks, streets, buildings, etc - trace over them, turning the buildings on the maps into rooms, the streets into corridors, parks into chasms or fungus gardens, etc.. kinda cool!
Chris Knapp
First Post
weem
First Post
Yea, photoshop comes to mind for me because I have it (and use it every day for work) but I tend not to mention it as most don't have it, and have no need to purchase it.
GIMP is good though, if you can't afford or don't want/need PS.
Celebrim
Legend
Yes, read my first post on the EnWorld boards.
For more old school design, I've recently been converted to something I previously sneered at: the dungeon geomorph.
I was converted by looking at the work of the best geomorph maker I've encountered: Dyson Logos. This is really elegant work by someone who has pretty much all of the good mapping skills. Notice the lack of symmetry, the excellent use of vertical space, the wide variation in doorway and entryways, the spare but inventive use of decoration, the use of classic hall variations, and in particular the superlative mixture of curved with straight lines. I have very few complaints against these tiles. The hand drawn tiles are so superior to the dead lines produced by a computer. They are some of the best old school work you'll encounter.
Still, in a finished dungeon of this scale, I'd like to see stronger variation of large and small scale rooms and even more use of vertical space - balconies, multi-leveled chambers, spirals, etc. But thats something you can probably work in. For creating truly large super dungeons, I think this demonstrates a tile system is very hard to beat. Even if you don't use tessallations, breaking the task up like this into smaller managable peices is a very worthwhile approach.
And the fact that you can use a computer now to do the rotation and copying means that if you are going to use the same time repeatedly its a much easier task than in the old days.
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